Where I work!

"Training hundreds, to train thousands, who care for millions."

I really like that.



Who I work with!

William, Ziadah (pictured below), Margaret, Virgin Mary (pictured in the background), and Janepher





The steep road leading down to the Learning Hub office...



past the bananas, cassava, and sugar cane...



almost there!



The Learning Hub!





The view from my desk on the 2nd floor (to the right is where we take lunch)



The office... fancy!





and no office would be complete without signs in the bathroom!



(Yes, and yes, to whatever you're thinking.)



AND no modern office would be complete without emails like this!

________________________________________
From: Milly Xxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2011 2:59 PM
To: Martha Xxxxxxxxx; Training Department
Cc: IDCAP Team; KCC; KKP Staff
Subject: RE: Telephone Extension at Reception

Congs Martha.

________________________________________
From: Martha Xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2011 8:12 AM
To: Training Department
Cc: IDCAP Team; KCC; KKP Staff
Subject: Telephone Extension at Reception

Dear All,

I am writing to inform you that a phone has been installed at the reception.
My extension number is 434.

Kind regards,
Martha Xxxxxxxxx

I just...

I just barfed 20 mins after taking my doxycycline without food. Lesson learned, "take with food" is actually not a suggestion.

WTF...

... is what I mistakenly read whenever I see WFP (World Food Programme) emails in my inbox. Yikes! They should really rethink that.

Vintage Mzee

That's quite the Dictator 'stache, M7!

Evoking Duende Somewhere between Blue and Green

To live in the borderlands means you
are neither hispana india negra española
ni gabacha, eres mestiza, mulata, half-breed
caught in the crossfire between camps while carrying all five races on your back
not knowing which side to turn to, run from;

To live in the Borderlands means knowing
that the india in you, betrayed for 500 years,
is no longer speaking to you,
that mexicanas call you rajetas,
that denying the Anglo inside you
is as bad as having denied the Indian or Black;

Cuando vives en la frontera
people walk through you, wind steals your voice,
you’re a burra, buey, scapegoat
forerunner of a new race,
half and half–both woman and man, neither–
a new gender;

To live in the Borderlands means to
put chile in the borscht
eat whole wheat tortillas,
speak Tex-Mex with a Brooklyn accent;
be stopped by la migra at the border check points;

Living in the Borderlands means you fight hard to
resist the gold elixer beckoning from the bottle,
the pull of the gun barrel,
the rope crushing the hollow of your throat;

In the Borderlands
you are the battleground
where enemies are kin to each other;
you are at home, a stranger,
the border disputes have been settled
the volley of shots have shattered the truce
you are wounded, lost in action
dead, fighting back;

To live in the Borderlands means
the mill with the razor white teeth wants to shred off
your olive-red skin, crush out the kernel, your heart
pound you pinch you roll you out
smelling like white bread but dead;

To survive in the Borderlands
you must live sin fronteras
be a crossroads.

From Gloria Anzuldua’s Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, I987)

Somewhere between Blue and Green from Evoking Duende: Travel and poetry from an American writer in Andalucía

how to rip Ugandan VCDs: part 2

So after downloading a bunch of free trial versions of software that converts .dat files into .mp3 files, I gave them all a spin and found a free trial version of ImToo that converts up to 5 mins of video into audio, so I was finally able to rip the overgrown pile of VCDs sitting on my desk borrowed from various Ugandan friends. Yay!

I ALSO found a way to download streaming videos as .mp4 files using KeepVid, which is a program that uses some JavaScript that essentially creates a link on the fly for downloading videos from websites like YouTube, TED, Facebook, etc.

I love how the phrase "on the fly" references the exact same concept across my two totally unrelated careers: my VERY short-lived career in the service industry (possibly short-lived due to it being spent working at the Macaroni Grill), and my current career working in software development.

I was definitely into piracy before I came to Uganda, but since I've been here, I think I've become pretty good at it.

how to rip Ugandan VCDs: part 1

After being here for 6 months...

After being here for 6 months, I finally had the opportunity to get pick-pocketed at the Old Taxi Park! I was walking with my friend Marika, and I just felt the slightest sensation of someone unzipping by bag, and instead of turning around to find my zipper just a little bit unzipped with no one in particular to claim the credit (a frequent scenario amidst the chaos at the Old Taxi Park, especially at night), I found not only my zipper completely unzipped, but I also found a guy in a maroon button-down shirt reaching his hand down into my bag and removing my wallet.

The Old Taxi Park

(this is actually the very first picture I took in Uganda)





I don't actually remember having any thought process in my mind about what might happen in the next few seconds, but I immediately spun around, my eyes flickering up just enough to catch his face and his eyes before completely focusing my eyes on my wallet. In the same moment, without even thinking, I lunged at the guy, digging into his forearm, preparing to hold on as tight as possible, and absolutely not let go, even if it meant getting dragged with him a few steps down the street, and I totally (dropped the f-bomb, sorry mom, and) yelled "give me my fucking wallet!" The guy, caught by surprise, immediately dropped my wallet and ran away, which was a wise choice. Stealing is really serious here, and similar to in India when there's a car accident, everyone gets involved, and there are constantly stories about people getting chased down by a spontaneous mob formed by everyone within range of the crime, and getting beaten, sometimes to the point of death.

I only had ~40,000/= in my wallet, which is less than $20, oh, and a photo ID debit card (not much use to a male Ugandan), a photo ID NJ driver's license (also not much use to a male Ugandan, but high in NJ sentimental value), along with a few business cards. A lot of my Ugandan friends actually only make between 5,000/= and 10,000/= per day. So yes, let's go there, that's 5,000 = $2 per day, 25,000/= per week, 100,000/= per month, and 1,200,000 = $500 per year. And just for fun, let's compare, by throwing in the fact that the frisbee team recently registered for the World Championship Beach Ultimate 2011 tournament in Italy, which incidentally only happens once every 4 years, and will cost ~$2,000 per player. So while the danger of getting caught stealing in downtown Kampala is very real, it's completely understandable that an opportunity to pick almost 1 week's worth of salary off a muzungu in less 30 seconds stands to be legitimately tempting, if you don't get caught. ;)

And after being here for 6 months, I ALSO finally had the opportunity to schmoooooze at an Accordia conference at the Kampala Serena, Accordia being one of the partners, along with Pfizer Inc, the Academic Alliance, and Makerere University, that founded the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI), where I work, and of course, the Serena being the most shamelessly ostentatious hotel in Kampala.

The Keynote Lecture



(in the ugliest conference room with the worst lighting)



The Cocktail Reception after the Keynote Lecture



(with the best Australian wine, beef kebabs, and smoked salmon)



And although it was all very exciting, I also discovered, more importantly, that I am the WORST offender of obliviously wearing my name tag for HOURS after a conference. Whoops! I had been kind of suspicious of this about myself for some time (but how to confirm such a thing?), and as I walked from the hotel to Centenary Park to meet up with a friend, I didn't realize until I was almost there that I had been wandering around in public once again with my full name plastered across my body, this time it was the lower right side of my stomach. I ran my hand across my hip and felt along the edges with my fingers before quickly ripping it off, shaking my head in disbelief, but at the same time amused with myself over my obscure inside joke... with myself.

The return of the coffee mug cake

The pumpkin coffee mug cake was inspired by my cuddly couch crasher Marika, a student at Kenyon college that I play frisbee with who's sticking around in East Africa for two extra months to travel!

She made dinner for Meg and me this past Saturday night, as a thank you for letting her stay at our apt this week: homemade ravioli from scratch with pumpkin filling consisting of pumpkin, garlic, onion, carrot, and parmesan cheese, topped with a spinach and garlic cream sauce. I made a Ugandan salad of tomato, onion, cabbage, and green pepper, tossed with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette. Meg said that balsamic vinegar is good for killing stuff, which I guess kind of makes it the Coke of salad. We busted out a bottle of Robert's Rock red wine, and since we only needed 1/3 of the pumpkin for the ravioli filling, and used the extra we even had from that 1/3 and made pan-fried pumpkin pancakes, I now have 2/3 of a freshly cooked pumpkin in the fridge. I found and considered a Paul Deen Pumpkin Bars recipe (shameless!... and sans the icing), but that would require turning the oven on in our apt, which is the equivalent of shooting fireworks inside the oven in our apt (but which is nothing compared to when the power line falls across the street from our apt), so it will probably be slowly and steadily consumed cup by cup, destined to a fate as pumpkin coffee mug cake.

The (redemptive) dinner retrospective:

Making the pumpkin ravioli (and making impromptu pumpkin pancakes, which ended up being my favorite part of the meal!)



Chopping the nakati (Ugandan spinach)



ZOMG cheese!!! (The cheese easily cost 1/2 of the entire meal!)



South African wine



Dinner (Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" playing in the background not pictured)



I know, I know, you're all judging me (and conveniently, last Saturday was May 21st, 2011, the revised prediction for the date of the Rapture), but my apt has a microwave, so it was inevitable!

Pumpkin cake:
4 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons cooked pumpkin
4 tablespoons milk (or water)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (or allspice, or whatever)
-adapted from Problem Solvin' Mom, with the utterly "apt" for being utterly generic tagline "because life provides plenty of opportunity for creative solutions"

Chocolate cake:
4 tablespoons chocolate (or vanilla, or whatever) cake mix
3 tablespoons milk (or water)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
(sometimes I add 1/2 tablespoon of coffee)

Microwave on high for 1 min or so, and enjoy!

Luganda linguistics lesson

OK so I've only met with Francis a handful of times in 3 months (5 times exactly), partially due to our busy schedules, partially due to the protests, but he's a natural Luganda tutor, his enunciation is beautiful (people either speak too fast or mumble, and sometimes both), his spelling is impeccable (people spell stuff in Luganda all sorts of ways), and we meet at the Makerere University Guild Canteen cafe, which has the best, puffiest, sweet-but-not-too-sweet chindazi (Ugandan donut) and African tea. African tea is just milk tea, even though Ugandans mostly drink their tea black.

The Makerere University Guild Canteen cafe




The Alphabet

The letters q and x don't exist, and there is an extra letter that looks like a script j and sounds like a soft "nj"

The letters h, i, p, r, and u don't start words but are used in words

The word for home = waka (tsamina mina eh eh, waka waka eh eh, tsamina mina zangalewa, this time for Africa...)

Ugandans know the word for cooking oil = butto, but the word for butter = siyagi, is never used and nobody knows it

Family

A mother's sisters are all called mother = maama, a father's brothers are all called father = taata, and an older brother or sister = baaba (that means father in Mandarin!)

If a female is speaking, there is no way to refer to a wife's family (because there is no way for a female to refer to a wife), and if a male is speaking, there is no way to refer to a husband's family (because there is no way for a male to refer to a husband)

Time

The word for mid-morning = kalasa mayanzi, which literally means "grasshopper's playing," and late afternoon = kawoza masiga, which literally means "cool down"

There is a difference between times at night, evening to midnight = ttumbi, and midnight to 4am = kinywa mbogo

Size Matters

The verbs kufirwa and kusuula both mean to lose something, but the first refers to losing something valuable, and the second refers to losing something regular

The verbs kutema and kusala both mean to cut something, but the first refers to using a large machete, and the second refers to using a small knife

Verbs, Nouns, Etc

The verb prefix ku is used to indicate the "to" form of a verb: kulya = to eat, kunywa, = to drink, kumanya = to know, kugamba = to say

The word ku means some: ku mmere = some food, ku mazzi = some water

The verbs to feel (physically/emotionally), to hear, to smell, and to taste something are all the same = kuwulira, but the verb to see/to meet someone is different = kulaba

The verb to choose/vote = londa, and the verb to wait = linda

The word for a story or a conversation = nboozi

There are 3 ways to say and = era, ate, and kyokka (I use ate, as in "ate gwe?/and you?" in response to someone asking "oli otya?/how are you?")

There isn't actually a way to say "I'm busy" in Luganda

Possession

Francis had to stop the lesson entirely because possession (mine, yours, his/hers, ours, yours, theirs) is so nuanced that he sat for a solid 10 mins thinking about how to explain it to me, and came up with nothing. We have yet to revisit this topic.

And just like that...

And just like that, police are spraying protesters bright pink.

"On Monday, at least nine unarmed people are believed to have been killed – including three shot in the back as they fled.

The tactic of spraying paint at protesters fairly common in Uganda and elsewhere in the continent.

It was used during the Apartheid era in South Africa, most famously in the 1989 Purple Rain Protest in Cape Town.

Spraying protesters a distinctive colour is carried out by such regimes because difficult for people to escape the police’s clutches while out of the demonstration zone.

The protests have sparked violence in the capital Kampala and several other towns for nearly a month.

But the protests show no sign of dying down..."-Reuters


Splash of anger: Police spray Ugandan protesters with coloured water during demonstrations in the capital Kampala


Pinked: Ugandan opposition politician Olara Otunnu is shielded by his supporters during the attack


Overcome with emulsion: Spraying tactics are the latest desperate tactic of disputed President Yoweri Museveni


Makeing their mark: The paint is used both to humiliate protesters and make it easier for police to track them down

And just like that...

And just like that, there's a "Walk-to-Work" Protest DVD already out.

The Letter M

M7 - President Museveni, comes from Mzee (pronounced "mzeh") and means "an old person, advanced in years" in Swahili

M$ - Microsoft, comes from a Uganda LUG thread today about buying Skype for $8.5 billion

I don't want to raise my kids...

I don't want to raise my kids in a place with too much aid, or too little development.

(But I do want them to experience it)

I don't want to raise my kids...

I don't want to raise my kids in a place that doesn't have Halloween and more importantly, trick-or-treating.

(Well, I at least want them to experience it, like, once or twice)

like when Mary Lennox first found the Secret Garden and it was a hot fucking mess...

a guide to the international development blogosphere

I was at first pretty overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information flowing out of this community, and intimidated by the fierce sophistication of both the data and ideas being discussed (picture that scene in Clueless where Amber remarks that her plastic surgeon "doesn't want me doing any activity where balls fly at my nose"). And at first I thought I'd need to go into battle with some pretty tough skin to combat the snark and cynicism, but I've found the community to simply be a really honest bunch, extremely candid about (often personal) stories of success and failure, willing to own (to a suspiciously enjoyable degree) any and all of the contradictions that come with working in the field of international development, whether its a post calling bullshit on some article, or a comment completely blasting some post.

I've pared down this list of international development blogs (which is apparently kind of a big deal) to the ones that have really sustained my interest and focus. I stumbled across the list when I first started my Global Health Corps fellowship with the Infectious Diseases Institute, and its been a great way for me to dive into the world of international aid, development, ICT4D, public health, relief, sustainability, etc, and after the initial shock, although being American, you'd think lots of choice wouldn't induce all that much shock, I've got what I feel is a balanced diet of thoughts, words, and ideas:

ict4d:
ICTWorks
Google Africa
SciDev.Net
TechCocktail

aid and development:
Aid Watch
Find What Works
Good Intentions Are Not Enough
How Matters
Roving Bandit
Tales From the Hood
wronging rights

I read other blogs, too, and those also fall into two categories: friends, and other miscellaneous stuff (cooking, poetry, software development, etc).

These are my names in Uganda

13. Marie

Sue, are you OK over there?

I've been getting this question a lot, and so in answer to this, and in so many words, I'm very OK over here. :)

I think there are two worlds that I live in, one of those world's being comprised of Kampala, and Uganda, and all of the ideas that get funneled into what people think of when they think of a person living in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially given the protests happening in Kampala and other parts of Uganda, and also especially given the media coverage of the protests happening in Kampala and other parts of Uganda.

But the other world is comprised of my daily life, and living in Kamwokya, and working at the IDI Learning Hub, and shopping at the market for fresh fruit and veggies, and on Fridays when the Kamwokya market becomes overflowing with clothes, shoes, jewelry, toys, electric kettles, ceramic stoves, plastic cups, bowls, and plates, and becomes this miniature neighborhood version of Owino Market, and playing frisbee twice a week at the Lugogo cricket fields and on weekends at the Makerere University Business School (MUBS) fields, and nerding it up at monthly MoMoKla events and Uganda Linux User Group (LUG) events and Kampala Google Tech User Group (GTUG) events, and meeting Francis on Wednesdays and Saturdays for Luganda lessons at Makerere University's Guild Canteen cafe, and watching the MTN Heathens beat every team they play at Kyadondo Rugby Club or Lugogo Rugby Ground over beers and pork, and spending public holidays at Aero beach all day and eating fresh, whole Tilapia with chips for dinner overlooking Lake Victoria at night, and stopping for Rolex in Wandegeya after a night at Iguana's or Steak Out, and watching bootleg movies for 2000/= (< USD $1) and listening to 100+ popular Ugandan songs on burned CDs for 5000/= (< USD $2.50), and spending Sunday mornings at the Baha'i Temple, and spending Sunday afternoons learning how to cook Ugandan food...

Actually, Nicholas was telling me Makerere University is notorious for its student riots, that there's riots almost as often as graduation. Once or twice over the past month I've actually had my Luganda tutor Francis cancel our lesson as a precaution against getting caught in any political activity on campus incited by the protests, but so far, there's only been a day or two of student rioting, and a 1-man hunger strike. In general, there's only been a day or two of rioting in Kampala (the same two days) where it became necessary to avoid downtown, but because I live and work slightly north of downtown, and because you really have to be within a certain range of the protesting (and I don't participate in the protests), I've luckily been outside of that range, and I've been relatively safe and out of harm's way.

Makerere University LC5 councillor Bernard Luyiga camping with his mosquito net outside the Main gate on hunger strike:



Unfortunately, Luyiga was hospitalized on day 2 of striking after he collapsed outside the Main gate and was rushed to the Makerere University hospital.

But inspired by Luyiga (I swear I had nothing to do with this :), students are proposing to streak in protest!!!

"We’re ready to move about naked and protest against this government’s brutality," said Joseph Kakooza, the IPC chairman at Makerere. -The Observer

These are my names in Uganda

11. Internet Girl

12. Sue-Sue (I guess it was just a matter of time)

"go west... or else I'll stay up all night writing to you like a long distance sleep over."

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

-e.e. cummings

***

Spark by Karis Rose

The mission was to become what we are
and I do not know if I am a dog, a chemist
or a silk screen. If I am lonely I need only
the soft tapping of tonsils, the stock
exchange, the hustle.

It is ludicrous what they ask us to be.
It is lucrative. Conditioned in captivity
but I do not know if I am captor or
captive. I read somewhere the God-
Force is the tension between the polarity
in every cell. A spark burrowed in
the atom could not decide if it was
positive or negative, if it was meant to
infiltrate an eccentric haired genius, tack
its potential to nuclear weaponry or just
meditate. I am the fallen star and the rising
sun, both. I do not negotiate the differentials.

I did not start the engine but I did ask
to be born and stumble, startled, on.

This is what Alex is singing right now

"War and Crime" by Lucky Dube



"Telephone" by Yoyo

These are my names in Uganda

So in honor of Ugandans having no less than 5 names to their name, here is a list of some of the names people lovingly use to refer to me:

1. Susan

2. Sue

3. Sanyu (pronounced San-yo)

4. Lister (pronounced List-ah)

5. Susie

6. Ms. Pretty Pretty Wow

7. American Queen

8. Prom Queen

9. Gwe, which just means "you" in Luganda, but which is how people get each other's attention, and is used so often that I included it

10. And, of course, "Muzungu!"

If you're not a family/friend/colleague from college or Boston, you might not know that some people back home in the US call me by my nickname Sue-Sue, which is prominently absent from this list.

The reason for this is because soo soo is onomatopoeia Ugandans use to refer to pee (or pee pee), e.g. a parent will ask a child "Do you need to go soo soo?"

I first encountered this while traveling in India (almost a year ago!) with Ming-Jay, his co-worker Ethan, and Ethan's girlfriend Shannon. We stayed with Tinku Ray (an amazing opinionated woman!) and her family when we were in Delhi, who is Shannon's former co-worker from when they both worked together at NPR, and as we were all talking one night it came up when she heard Ming-Jay refer to me as "Sue-Sue," and after she finished laughing, she explained to us that Indians likewise use the phrase for a similar purpose.

This is what Alex is singing right now

My friend Alex is constantly singing, so instead of saying "this is what I'm listening to" right now, it would be more accurate to say "this is what I'm listening to Alex singing" right now (in reverse chronological order).

"Speaking in Tongues" by Baboon Forest



"I Know" by Benon & Vamposs



"Strong Woman" by Blue 3



"Number One" by Bobi Wine

Easter, Mombasa, Riots, and Street Food

So what do you do on a Friday night when there's riots in Kampala? Well, as I'd been following the #walk2work tweets all day at work, and listening to the frequent trio of blasts, gunshots, and sirens every 20 mins or so, there was at one point, a joke tweeted about expecting Ugandans to still be going out tonight.



I had plans to meet up with my friend Haywood who was leaving Kampala the next day, but ended up with some surprise visitors that needed a place to stay Friday night. My surprise visitors were two Ugandan friends that I play frisbee with, Alex and Gerald, who stay in Makindye, a nearby suburb south of Kampala, who had stayed at my place the previous night after the team had gone to Bubbles for Thursday quiz night, an Irish ex-pat watering hole which is really close to where I live.

We all woke up that morning, with only Alex a bit hungover, to the promise of a full weekend of celebrating the wins of both Uganda A Team Rolex (1st place champs!) & Uganda B Team Boda Boda (2nd place champs! And which I was a co-captain!) at the Easter weekend FEAST tournament in Mombasa, Kenya with a frisbee party Saturday night, and plans for a trip (my third!) to the Baha'i Temple, a street food cooking lesson (my second!) with Line, a student from Denmark writing her Bachelor's thesis, and her friends Louise and Iben, medical residents also from Denmark who just finished up 3 months of delivering babies deep down in the village of Busolwe, and of course, frisbee practice (my... 8,002,753th!) after that, on Sunday.

Alex and Gerald pushed (walked with) me to the top of Kitante Close, a short but steep and windy road off of Yusuf Lule Rd, and when I left them they were on their way to town to make their way back to Makindye. But I knew there was trouble when I started hearing the blasts, gunshots, and sirens from my office, and at around noon, I got a confusing call from Gerald who told me he and Alex were stuck near the Lugogo Shoprite, a huge shopping mall which is just east of town, after getting tear gassed, but that they couldn't stop and take refuge at Cricket Oval, the concrete-enclosed cricket fields where the frisbee team practices on Tuesday and Thursday for free, which is normally open to the public. He told me that they were headed further east, but that he was really worried about Alex, who wasn't feeling well and falling asleep, and asked me if I could find some Panadol (generic pain reliever/fever reducer) and meet them somewhere to bring it to Alex. Obviously, it wasn't safe for me to embark on a wild rescue search for them, but I hoped in the back of my mind that they had found a safe place to stop and rest.

At work, after others had filtered out and gone home for the weekend, my co-worker Jannipher actually came over to my desk as it was getting towards 6pm and told me with a gentle but stern tone that I should probably leave the office and get home before it got dark. I've come to know the nuanced shades of concern about safety in Kampala based on the reaction of my Ugandan co-workers to events leading up to and during the presidential and local elections and the ongoing protests that had just passed the 2-week mark on Thursday, but this was the first time someone had ventured to really let me know they were concerned which I knew was an indication that today was a bit different.

Marika, a student at Kenyon College studying abroad for a semester in Kampala that also plays frisbee, came over for dinner that night; she excitedly agreed to Royal Wedding iterations on E! (randomly 1 of the only channels we get in our apt) and a fresh bowl of Ramen with carrots, garlic, onions, mushrooms, and spinach as she'd been sick for a few days, and I had just returned from Mombasa with lots of Ramen! Ramen is expensive in Kampala, upwards of $.50 (1,000 Ush), and while it was still expensive in Mombasa, it was half the price at only $.25 (20 Ksh).

So what else did I bring back from Mombasa??? Just the essentials: two 250ml bottles of Kenya Safari gin, 20 mangoes fresh off the street (2 ripe and 18 unripe), and 8 packets of Ramen!

We talked together in the kitchen about the day as she minced and I chopped and water boiled, and just as we were about to saute the veggies and drop 2 eggs into the pot of noodles, I got a call from Alex saying he and Gerald were downstairs. I had the foresight to make a double portion of noodles because I knew Alex and Gerald were coming over, and I assumed they hadn't eaten all day judging from Gerald's description, but was really surprised that they came carrying chapatis to make Rolex. Rolex is made by rolling an egg omelette in a chapati, and the omelette is usually made with a minimum of tomato and onion. When Alex comes over, I usually buy all of the ingredients and he makes the Rolex; Alex and Gerald in general don't have much money to spend, that would require having employment opportunities, which most Ugandans in their 20s struggle to find, so 3 out of 4 was really impressive, especially given the circumstances.

Even through their laughter and finishing of the other's broken sentences, the full story of what it was like being in the cross-fire of riots and tear gas (and triggering the recent memory of being in the cross-fire of riots less than 2 years ago) wasn't completely lucid or coherent; Marika and I knew to not press for too many details because it was apparent they were pretty shaken up.

So back to my original question, what do you do on a Friday night when there's riots in Kampala? The answer: Ramen, Rolex, and the Royal Wedding!











Marika and I feasted on Ramen, Alex and Gerald made Rolex, and I grabbed 2 more mugs to make all of us tea, for which Marika and I would drink black, Alex and Gerald would drink with no less than 2 heaping teaspoons of sugar. We all gathered in my living room to watch the competing global event of the day, the Royal Wedding! Marika's study abroad program director was really concerned about the students' safety, so she left a bit earlier, around 9pm, and Alex, Gerald, and I stayed up the rest of the night, with Alex spinning the music off my freshly-burned CD with 100+ new Ugandan songs to listen to (originally intended for the 18+ hour bus ride to and from Mombasa), drinking Kenya Safari gin mixed with pineapple juice, and teaching Alex and Gerald how to play Spit, the two-person card game I learned how to play from my cousins when I was really young, and which I don't think I've played since summer camp!

Since Ugandans don't riot on the weekends, Saturday was spent as planned, saying goodbye to Haywood and sending him off properly, with a mango from Mombasa, a 200ml bottle of Uganda Waragi, and copying 500MB of Ugandan music onto one of his flash drives. I met up with him in Muyenga, which is a neighborhood in south Kampala, and I met his soon-to-be-former roommates Roey and Aneri, the new roommate taking his place Julia, and his friends Desta and Dow-li, both roommates who also live in Muyenga down the street from Roey, Aneri, and Julia. Haywood and I met at Mobile Monday Kampala (MoMoKla) and ended up hanging out a lot in the 3 months he was here. We spent a weekend in April running around Kampala like tourists eating Rolex and Kikomando (pronounced chikomando) and seeing all of the sights together, which included my first trip to the Baha'i Temple, as well as the Uganda Museum, the Kasubi Tombs, and tours of the Kabaka's Parliament and Palace. Along with Madeline aka Mad-dog, a Watson fellow who also played frisbee, that I had become close with, and who had just left for Indonesia a week and a half ago after 3 months, he was another goodbye that made it hard for me to say. I crashed lunch with his friends at Abinet, a small and cheap Ethiopian restaurant in Muyenga that they frequent, and then parted ways to head home and do laundry before the frisbee party that night.

Sunday was also spent as planned, with a poorly bargained boda to and from the Baha'i Temple (it seems to be harder to get a good bargain if the destination is anything remotely for sight-seeing or tourists). The service starts at 10:30am, and only lasts about half an hour, so with the frisbee party going late into the night before, and with only Line a bit hungover, Alex, Line, Louise, Iben and I arrived at the temple around 11:30am, with just a few of the congregation left lingering as we explored, and in which Alex compared Louise and her walking stick to his 127 year old grandfather who lives in Masaka. We spent the rest of the afternoon at my apt after a quick trip to the Kamwokya market to pick up some remaining ingredients. Line, Louise, and Iben learned how to make pancakes (my favorite!), chapati, and 2 kinds of samosas, one with a potato and carrot filling, and the other with a french bean and pea filling. The pancakes and chapatis were especially delicious because Alex mixes lime zest into the pancake dough, and garlic, onions, carrots and green peppers into the chapati dough, both recipes that convinced Louise, and Line and I agreed, that Alex should open up a restaurant. Being the youngest of a mix of siblings and cousins and cooking for everyone (and the rule "if you feeling like eating and you're cooking, you better be cooking for everyone") is lots of practice!

The rain is pouring outside today. I can hear the infrequent squeals of children emanating from the unusually quiet streets of my Kamwokya neighbors, undoubtedly forced inside from the rain, and I'm home sick with a sore throat. I was feeling a bit rundown Saturday afternoon, but didn't really give in to the fact that I was sick until I felt dizzy and light-headed at practice Sunday night. I also think my consumption of dust and pollution surpasses a certain threshold (and perhaps a diet of beans and chapatis, along with plenty of late nights and a lack of sleep), and the result is a cold that wipes me out for a day or two. But when it rains the mosquitoes always come out in full force, which means if I don't use my mosquito net, I'll be covered in mosquito bites tomorrow and attacked tonight!!!

I can't believe it, but I'm down to the last 3 months of my fellowship in Kampala!!! I actually have to decide in the next few days to book my flight at the beginning of August, which seems like one huge detail among lots of other huge details on the horizon in these next 3 months. Stay tuned!